Out of Towners

Although I basically run a local business, there have been a few requests to send sewing machines or to hold for a buyer to come to the Twin Cities, like when a Domestic went to Scotland, or a Brother Select-o-Matic went to South Dakota via trucker, or just a continuation of the saga of an Elna that went back and forth to St. Louis.

Back in 2015, Mary Sue got in touch with me through a blog post about an Elna and she wanted to know if I had an Elna Jubilee model 46. This model is similar to the Elna Air Electronic, model SU68, except there are no additional cams, working from a built in camstack for a nice variety of utility stitches. With the Air Electronic you can add decorative stitches with individual cams but the Jubilee came without that feature. Mary Sue's beloved Jubilee died after a many decades of use and she couldn't find one or trust an auction site so she got in touch with me. Although I did have an Air Electronic for sale and it wasn't the exact same model as hers, she still wanted to give it a chance since it would be so similar. Could she come over to buy it? It was only when I discovered she was in St. Louis, Missouri, that I put the brakes on but it would not be a problem since they had a son who now lived in the Twin Cities and they would be traveling up here.

Elna Air Electronic, model SU68

Over the years we kept in touch and I was even the recipient of her decades worth of Sew News, a very nice set of magazines that I'm still reading my way through. I love the information and even the ads for some of the sewing machines that were new at the time that I'm now working with today. Since I'm always on the look-out for requested sewing machines, I finally found an Elna Jubilee, even finding two of them, as I wrote about on Ingenuity. I got an email back from Mary Sue titled Yes! Yes. yes. They would be coming back up but not sure when yet I was not going to sell The Jubliee without her seeing it first. This was back in February and by then I was in Florida taking care of my mom so it was nearly forgotten until now. Mary Sue was coming up for Thanksgiving and wanted to stop over to swap out the Air Electronic for the Jubilee:

Elna Jubilee, model 46

 Since I had two of them, she got to try them both and take her pick. There were only slight differences and she picked the one I bought locally that came in a retrofitted table that was sold months ago. We sorted through the accessories and since she still had her old machine with all of its accessories she wouldn't need some of the feet and none of the bobbins. The Air Electronic came back with the hand wheel off but it was a quick fix and is now good as new (it took a bit of lining up and force to get it to click into place).

Mary Sue brought gifts, too! Here are the microwave bowl holders she makes for friends:

Microwave bowl holders: cute!

and even offered to send me the pattern. We used them at lunch yesterday and they worked great so I'm hoping I can make some for work. She also brought a manual typewriter after I wrote about our school Makerspace and looking for typewriters. This one I will keep for my grandchildren to try out to see how we lived "in the olden days". My granddaughter, Emma, is learning to read and might have fun typing out the words she knows.

I finally finished fixing up the new-to-me wicker furniture on the porch by making covers for the new foam cushions. I stained the faded wicker accents with sage green and then gave them a coat of boiled linseed oil. Do not put linseed oil over stain! It left them sticky and it has taken two months to finally "cure" and not be tacky to the touch. I like the final product:

Porch furniture with new cushions

I also got the pillows for the trundle bed covered in the guest bedroom, using my new treadle. Practice on a treadle is necessary and four pillows with piping gave me a nice refresher session.

Pillows with piping for new trundle bed

It was a nice start to the Thanksgiving holiday with our visit from Mary Sue and her husband, taking her from a customer to a friend. I have a feeling we might be seeing them again on a trip to St. Louis as we visit a daughter who has moved to Missouri. Until then, may you all have a blessed Thanksgiving and happy sewing days ahead.